I woke up this morning, swung my legs over the side of the bed and stood up. Amazingly, my legs didn’t feel like they were going to give out beneath me. Must be time to move on up to level 2!

So, here are my thought on the second level of Jillian’s program. Ugh. Double Ugh. Can I go back to level 1 and doing 100 jumping jacks now?

A couple of the squat moves were absolutely killer, but the cardio in this one is what really got me. Level one was jumping jacks, butt kicks, jump rope and something else (can’t remember right now…all my blood is trying to rebuild my torn up muscles…there’s none left for my brain). The second level included high kicks, double jump rope, skis (jumping side to side leading with one leg, other one behind you) and twisting jumps. During the final circuit I literally could not breathe. At during one lunge move, Jillian said “halfway there” and I wanted to cry. But I didn’t. Nor did I quit. I made it thru. But just barely.

Level 2 differs from the first level in one major way. Instead of doing squats and lunges where you get a break (up, down, up, down) – the lunges and squats in the second level are static. You get into the position and stay there. So, you’re in a squat for a full minute or two instead of it being a couple of seconds down, then a rest as you come back up before the next move. And, since Jillian does small muscles at the same time as big muscles – you’re doing a static lunge with shoulder presses, or raises the entire time. So, in addition to your thighs being on fire, you want to chop your arms off at the shoulders to stop the pain there too. I didn’t like the abs workout as much in this level – and actually did a few sets of the moves from level 1 at the end of the workout today just for good measure.

Bottom line, it was awesome. I feel great completing it, and love the abbreviated workout time. I feel like I’m working harder and better in 20 (really about 25) minutes than I used to in an hour at the gym.